Method for supporting post browsing in moving rights object of digital rights management and terminal thereof

ABSTRACT

A digital rights management (DRM) including a transfer of a rights object (RO) to a second user in consideration of requirements of a movement of a rights object of a first user (a terminal, an equipment), charge, etc., by providing a post browsing session when the rights object occupied by the first user is transferred to a second user via a server.

This application is a Continuation of co-pending application Ser. No.12/671,454, filed on Jan. 29, 2010, which is the National Phase of PCTInternational Application No. PCT/KR2008/005076 filed on Aug. 29, 2008,and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to Patent Application No.10-2008-0000364 filed in the Republic of Korea on Jan. 2, 2008 and toPatent Application No. 10-2008-0079644 filed in the Republic of Korea onAug. 13, 2008, all of which are hereby expressly incorporated byreference into the present application.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a digital rights management (DRM), andmore particularly, to transferring a rights object (RO) to a second userby considering a requirement of a first user (a terminal, an equipment)when the rights object occupied by the first user is transferred to asecond user via a server.

BACKGROUND ART

A Digital Rights Management (DRM) system is a technology for securelyprotecting and systematically managing a rights object of digitalcontents, and provides a series of protection and management systemsrelated to the prevention of illegal copy of digital contents andacquisition of rights object of the digital contents, generation andcirculation of the digital contents, and procedures of use of thedigital contents. The DRM has been applied to a variety of applications,such as a media player, an audio player, an image viewer, and the like.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a digital rights management system. Thedigital rights management system controls digital contents provided froma contents provider to a user such that the user is able to use thedigital contents as much as rights object granted to the user. Here, thecontents provider is an entity corresponding to a Contents Issuer (CI)and/or a Rights Issuer (RI).

The Contents Issuer (CI) issues contents (Le., DRM contents) protectedusing a specific encoding key so as to protect the DRM contents fromusers having no access rights, and the Rights Issuer (RI) issues RightsObject (RO) required to use the protected contents.

A DRM agent installed in a terminal receives the protected contents andrights object, and controls a use of the contents by analyzing a licenseincluded in the rights object and converting the protected contents intoa form suitable for being used in a corresponding terminal.

FIG. 2 is a signal flowchart illustrating a related art method formoving, by a first terminal (a terminal of a first user), a rightsobject occupied by the first terminal to a second terminal (a terminalof a second user) through an RI. The first terminal is a source terminalwhich desires to move a rights object, while the second terminal is atarget terminal which receives the rights object. In the related artshown in FIG. 2, after receiving a trigger message for moving a rightsobject from an RI (S1), the first terminal sends a request. message(MoveRightsRequest) for moving a rights object (e.g., RO1, RO2 and RO3)occupied by (belonging to) the first terminal (S2). The RI sends to thefirst terminal a message (MoveRightsResponse) in response to the requestmessage (S3), and moves the rights object (i.e., RO1, RO2 and RO3)requested by the first terminal to the second terminal (S4).

In the related art as shown in FIG. 2, the source terminal moves therights object occupied by the source terminal to the target terminalthrough the RI, however, requirements for moving the rights object ofthe source terminal, etc. are not considered.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a methodfor considering requirements for moving a rights object desired by asource terminal and/or a target terminal, when the source terminal wantsto move a rights object occupied by the source terminal through a server(e.g., an RI).

To achieve this object, there is provided a method for supporting a postbrowsing in moving a rights object in digital rights managementaccording to the present invention, including:

(A) transferring, by a first terminal, a request message to a server soas to move a rights object occupied by the first terminal to a secondterminal;

(B) receiving, by the first terminal, a response message includingaddress information (e.g., a PR-URL) from the server;

(C) checking, by the first terminal, whether or not the addressinformation is included in the response message; and

(D) connecting, by the first terminal, to a server managing charge andpayment information by using the address information, and performing abrowsing session.

Preferably, the step (D) includes: checking, by the first terminal,charge and payment information of a rights object to be moved to thesecond terminal; and changing or modifying, by the first terminal, therights object to be moved to the second terminal.

Preferably, there is further included a step of moving, by the server,the changed or modified rights object to the second terminal.

Preferably, there are further included steps of inquiring and answering,by the server in cooperation with the second terminal, aboutcharge/payment information or charge/payment condition of the changed ormodified rights object; and moving, by the server, the rights object tothe second terminal based on the inquiry and answer.

Preferably, there is further included a step of disabling, by the firstterminal, the rights object.

Preferably, there is further included a step of deleting, by the firstterminal, the rights object.

To achieve this object, in a method for moving a rights object betweenterminals through a server, there is provided a method for moving arights object in digital rights management according to the presentinvention, including:

receiving, by a first terminal, a response message in response to arequest for moving at least one or more rights objects from a server;checking, by the first terminal, whether or not address information(e.g., a PR-URL) is included in the response message; performing, by thefirst terminal, a browsing session by using the address information; andchanging, by the first terminal, the rights objects through the browsingsession.

Preferably, there is further included a step of moving, by the server,the changed rights objects to a second terminal.

In addition, to achieve this object, there is provided a terminalaccording to the present invention, including: a receiver configured toreceive a response message including address information (e.g., PR-URL)with respect to a request for moving a rights object; and a controllerconfigured to check whether or not the address information is includedin the received response message, perform a browsing session by usingthe address information, and change the rights object to be moved.

Effect

First, from a perspective of a terminal user, the present invention mayconsider a variety of requirements of the terminal user (viewing chargeinformation, adding/removing a rights object to be moved, or the like)when a terminal moves a rights object to another terminal, even afterthe terminal transferred the rights object to the server (RI).

Second, from a perspective of a service provider, the present inventionallows the service provider to develop a variety of business scenariosas well as to provide a flexible digital contents service to a user,since the terminal can view charge information of the rights object ormodify (e.g., addition, deletion, etc.) the rights object to be movedeven after the terminal transferred the rights object to be moved toanother terminal to the server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a digital rights management system;

FIG. 2 is a signal flowchart illustrating a related art method formoving, by a first terminal (a terminal of a first user), a rightsobject occupied by the first terminal to a second terminal (a terminalof a second user) through an RI;

FIG. 3 is a signal flowchart illustrating a method for supporting a postbrowsing in moving a rights object in digital rights managementaccording to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a signal flowchart illustrating a method for supporting a postbrowsing in moving a rights object in digital rights managementaccording to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a terminal according to the presentinvention.

MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is applied to a Digital Rights Management (DRM)system. However, the present invention is not limited to the DRM system,and may also be applied to all communication systems and methods thereofto which the technical scope of the present invention may be applied,and other rights related system and method thereof.

Various modifications and embodiments can be made in the presentinvention, and reference will be made in detail to the preferredembodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustratedin the accompanying drawings. However, it should also be understood thatembodiments are not limited by any of the details of the foregoingdescription, but rather should be construed broadly within its spiritand scope and it is intended that the present invention covermodifications and variations of this invention provided they come withinthe scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Though terms including ordinal numbers such as a first, a second, etc.may be used to explain various components, the components are notlimited to the terms. The terms are used only for the purposed ofdistinguishing one component from another component. For instance, afirst component may be referred to as a second component, or similarly,the second component may be referred to as the first component, withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. A term ‘and/or’ isused to include a combination of a plurality of disclosed items or oneof the items.

In case it is mentioned that a certain component is “connected” or“accessed” to another component, it may be understood that the certaincomponent is directly connected or accessed to the another component orthat a component is interposed between the components. On the contrary,in case it is mentioned that a certain component is “directly connected”or “directly accessed” to another component, it should be understoodthat there is no component therebetween.

Terms used in the present invention is to merely explain specificembodiments, thus it is not meant to be limiting. A singular expressionincludes a plural expression except that two expressions arecontextually different from each other. In the present invention, a term“include” or “have” is intended to indicate that characteristics,figures, steps, operations, components, elements disclosed on thespecification or combinations thereof exist. Rather, the term “include”or “have” should be understood so as not to pre-exclude existence of oneor more other characteristics, figures, steps, operations, components,elements or combinations thereof or additional possibility.

Except that they are not differently defined, all terms used in thepresent invention including technical or scientific terms have the samemeanings with terms that are generally understood by those skilled inthe art related to the field of the present invention. The terms same asthose of which are defined in a general dictionary should be understoodthat the terms have meanings same as contextual meanings of the relatedart. And, as long as the terms are not definitely defined in the presentinvention, the terms are not interpreted as ideal or excessively formalmeanings.

Reference will now be given in detail to the preferred embodiments ofthe present invention, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numeralswill be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or'similarparts, and the same descriptions thereof are omitted.

The present invention conceptually relates to considering requirements(e.g., charge information, payment information, and the like) of asource terminal and/or a target terminal when a rights object is movedbetween terminals (i.e., the source terminal and the target terminal)through a specific server (e.g., an RI). That is, first, if the sourceterminal requests to move the rights object, the server sends a responsemessage by including a parameter indicating a specific address (alsoreferred to as ‘specific address information’) therein, second, thesource terminal connects to a server of the specific address (e.g., aweb address of a server, an address of a server in responsible forcharge and additional information, or the like) included in the responsemessage and thereby to check or modify the charge information and/oradditional information of the rights objects to be moved, and third, theserver moves the rights objects to the target terminal based on thechecked or modified charge information and/or additional information. Inparticular, in order to describe exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention, the parameter indicating the specific address (or specificaddress information) included in the response message is defined as the‘Post Response Uniform Resource Locator (URL)’ (in short, PR-URL).However, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited toa formal meaning of the defined term, and may also be applied to allterms to which the technical characteristic of the present invention isimplemented.

A Rights Object Acquisition Protocol (ROAP) is a protocol used to move arights object between terminals through a server. Hereinafter,descriptions of parameters included in a request message(MoveRightsRequest) of a ROAP for moving a rights object and a responsemessage (MoveRightsResponse) according to the present invention will begiven.

Table 1 shows parameters included in a request message for moving arights object. The message is a message sent from the source terminal(first terminal) to the server. In Table 1, the parameter M (Mandatory)indicates a parameter which should be mandatorily included, and theparameter O (Optional) indicates a parameter which may be optionallyincluded.

TABLE 1 Parameter ROAP-MoveRightsRequest Device ID M RI ID M DeviceNonce M Request Time M Recipient Device ID O Rights Info M CertificateChain O Extnesions O Signature M

In Table 1, the “Device ID” is a parameter indicating an ID(identification) of a source terminal. The “RI ID” is a parameterindicating an ID of a server (RI) receiving a request message(MoveRightsRequest) which is sent from the source terminal. The “DeviceNonce,” as a random number, is a parameter included in a responsemessage (MoveRightsResponse) to be sent by the server and used to checkwhether it is a response to the request message. The “Request Time” is aparameter indicating a transmission time of the request message. The“Recipient Device ID” is a parameter indicating an ID of a receivingterminal to which the source terminal desires to move (transfer) therights object, that is, an ID of a target terminal. The “Rights Info” isa parameter including information related to a rights object transferredfrom the source terminal to the server. The “Certificate Chain” is aparameter indicating a certificate chain of the source terminaltransmitting the request message. The “Signature,” as a digitalsignature for the entire request message, is a parameter indicating adigital signature value generated by the source terminal.

Table 2 shows parameters included in a response message with respect tothe request message in Table 1. The response message is a message sentto the source terminal (first terminal) from the server. In Table 2, theparameter M (Mandatory) indicates a parameter which should bemandatorily included, and the parameter O (Optional) indicates aparameter which may be optionally included.

TABLE 2 ROAP-MoveRightsResponse Parameter Status = Success Status ≠Success Status M M Device ID M M RI ID M M Device Nonce M M CertificateChain O — OCSP Response O — Post Response URL O — Extensions O —Signature M M

In Table 2, the “Status” is a parameter indicating a processing state ofthe request message. The “Device ID” is a parameter indicating an ID ofa source terminal receiving the response message. The “RI ID” is aparameter indicating an ID of a server (RI) sending the responsemessage. The “Device Nonce” should have the same value as that of the“Device Nonce” included in the request message. The “Certificate Chain”is a parameter indicating a certificate chain of the server. The “OCSPResponse” is a parameter including information indicating whether or nota certificate of a server is discarded if the source terminal requestsan OCSP Response in the request message. The “Signature” is a parameterindicating, by the server, a digital signature value for the entireresponse message. The “Post Response URL,” as a parameter newly definedin the present invention, includes address-related information of aserver (a web server) capable of inputting charge information oradditional information related to moving a rights object.

The present invention relates to supporting a Post Browsing byconnecting to a server of an address included in the parameter “PostResponse URL” (or ‘address information’). Here, the post browsing refersto changing, modifying, inquiring, etc. additional information withrespect to the rights object to be moved, after messages for moving arights object are exchanged between the server (RI) and the terminal (asource terminal) in relation to the movement of the rights object.

FIG. 3 is a signal flowchart illustrating a method for supporting a postbrowsing in moving a rights object in digital rights managementaccording to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, a firstterminal 201 is a source terminal for moving (transferring) a rightsobject of the first terminal 201 through a server 100, and a secondterminal 202 is a target terminal for receiving the rights objecttransferred by the first terminal 201 through the server 100. Inaddition, in FIG. 3, the server 100 is assumed to be a Rights Issuer(RI), however, the server 100 may also be an entity, other than the RI.

Referring to FIG. 3, a protocol (e.g., a 2-way ROAP Acquisition) formoving a rights object between the server 100 and the first terminal 201is proceeded. That is, the first terminal 201 receives a trigger messagefrom the server 100 indicating a start of the movement of the rightsobject (S11). Here, the trigger message is an optional message which canbe selectively received from the server 100 so as to move the rightsobject of digital contents in the first terminal 201.

The first terminal 201 transmits, to the server 100, a request message(MoveRightsRequest) for moving rights objects (e.g., RO1, RO2 and RO3)occupied by the first terminal 201 to the second terminal 202 (S12).Here, the first terminal 201 may disable the rights objects. Here, thedisablement of the rights objects signifies a state that the rightsobjects cannot be used. And, the request message (MoveRightsRequest) mayinclude the parameters as shown in Table 1.

In response to the request message in step (S12), the server 100transmits a response message (MoveRightsResponse) to the first terminal201 (S13). Here, the response message includes a PR-URL parameter. ThePR-URL parameter includes an address of the server 100 capable ofperforming the post browsing procedure (e.g., an address of a webserver: here, the address of the server in FIG. 3 is the address of theRI.). The first terminal 201 receives the response message, and checkswhether or not the PR-URL parameter is included in the response message(S14).

And, the first terminal uses an address indicated by the PR-URL so as toconnect to a corresponding server of the address and initiate (start) apost browsing session with the server 100 (S15). For instance, a user ofthe first terminal 201 may inquire, by using the post browsing session,about a cost required to move the rights object having been transferredto the server 100 to the second terminal 202, and pay the inquired costaccording to a determination of the user. As another example, it isassumed that the first terminal 201 moves (transfers) rights objects(e.g., RO1, RO2 and RO3) occupied by the first terminal 201 to thesecond terminal 202. Here, through the post browsing session in step(S15), the first terminal 201 may check, for instance, charge-relatedinformation of the rights objects to be transferred to the secondterminal 202 (e.g., the cost for moving RO1 or RO3 is “1,000” and thecost of moving RO2 is “3,000”), and accordingly, the user of the firstterminal 201 may intend to move the rights object only which requires aninexpensive moving cost. Here, the user of the first terminal 201 mayselect rights objects only (e.g., RO1 and RO3 only) which are desired toactually move to the second terminal among the rights objects (i.e.,RO1, RO2 and RO3). That is, the first terminal 201 may change and modifya list of rights objects desired to transfer by performing the postbrowsing session with the server 100. Consequently, the first terminal201 deletes a portion (i.e., RO2) of its rights objects in the postbrowsing session due to a reason including a transmission cost, or thelike.

Based on the post browsing performed in step (S15), the server 100transmits, to the second terminal 202, the rights objects (i.e., RO1 andRO3) requested by the first terminal 201 (S16).

In step (S14), the first terminal may consider the response message(MoveRightsResponse) as an acknowledgement of the request message(MoveRightsRequest) in step (S12), and delete the rights objects (e.g.,RO1 RO3) to be moved.

FIG. 4 is a signal flowchart illustrating a method for supporting a postbrowsing in moving a rights object in digital rights managementaccording to another embodiment of the present invention. In theembodiment in FIG. 4, signal flows in FIG. 4, which have the samereference numerals as those in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, are thesame as the corresponding signal flows in FIG. 3 in operations andfunctions thereof. Therefore, descriptions of the signal flows in FIG. 4will refer to those of the respective signal flows in FIG. 3.

The embodiment in FIG. 4, when compared to that in FIG. 3, may furtherinclude inquiring and answering about charge/payment condition of arights object to be transferred between the server 100 and the secondterminal 202 after the post browsing session (S15). That is, the server100 inquires of the second terminal 202 whether or not the rights objectchanged in step (S15) (i.e., transferring the RO1 and RO3 only, insteadof transferring the RO1˜RO3) should be received. In response to this,the second terminal 202 may inquire about charge/payment condition ofthe rights objects to be transferred, or may send a response which willcheck charge/payment condition for the rights objects to be transferredprovided by the server 100 and then receive the rights objects.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a terminal according to the presentinvention.

Hereinafter, description of a structure and an operation of a terminalaccording to the present invention will be given with reference to FIG.5. The terminal 300 according to the present invention comprehensivelyincludes all types of devices capable of using contents in DRM, such asall terminals for mobile communications (e.g., User Equipments (UEs),mobile phones, cellular phones, Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB)phones, DVB-H phones, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) phones, and PTTphones, and the like), digital TVs, GPS navigations, portable gameplayers, MP3, other home appliances, and the like.

The terminal 300 according to the present invention may include areceiver 301 configured to receive a response message including a PR-URLwith respect to a request for moving a rights object; and a controller302 configured to check whether or not the PR-URL is included in thereceived response message, perform a browsing session by using thePR-URL, and change (or modify) the rights object to be moved in thebrowsing session or view charge/payment information. Here, thecontroller may also be referred to as a DRM agent.

In addition to the basic components as shown in FIG. 7, the terminal 300according to the present invention may include all essential componentsof an equipment (terminal) necessary to use DRM contents. Here, othercomponents in FIG. 7 are apparent to those skilled in the art, thereforedetailed explanations thereof are omitted. The operations and functionsof each component of the terminal 300 according to the present inventionwill be equally applied to the respective portions described in FIGS. 3and 4.

As the present invention may be embodied in several forms withoutdeparting from the characteristics thereof, it should also be understoodthat the above-described embodiments are not limited by any of thedetails of the foregoing description, unless otherwise specified, butrather should be construed broadly within its scope as defined in theappended claims, and therefore all changes and modifications that fallwithin the metes and bounds of the claims, or equivalents of such metesand bounds are therefore intended to be embraced by the appended claims.

1. A method for supporting a post browsing in moving an object, themethod comprising: receiving, by a first user equipment (UE) which isable to consume a content, at least one object, wherein the object isowned by the first UE after the object is issued by a server; if theobject is to be moved via the server to a second UE which is able toconsume a content, transmitting, by the first UE and to the same server,a request message to move the object to the second UE, wherein therequest message includes information on the object to be moved;receiving, by the first UE, a response message including addressinformation from the server; and connecting, by the first UE, to aserver based on the address information thereby to perform a browsingsession enabling to select or deselect the object to be moved.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: checking, by the first UE,whether or not the address information is included in the responsemessage
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the connecting step comprises:checking, by the first UE, information on an object to be moved to thesecond UE; and changing or modifying, by the first UE, the object to bemoved to the second UE.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:moving, by the server, the changed or modified object to the second UE.5. The method of claim 3, further comprising: inquiring and answering,by the server in cooperation with the second UE, about the changed ormodified object; and moving, by the server, the object to the second UEbased on the inquiry and answer.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein theaddress information is included in a Post Response (PR)-URL parameter,and the address information is a parameter including an address of aserver managing the charge/payment information.
 7. A method for movingan object between user equipments (UEs), the method performed by aserver and comprising: transmitting, by the server, to a first userequipment (UE) which is able to consume a content, at least one object,wherein the object is owned by the first UE after the object is issuedby the server; receiving, by the server and from the first UE, a requestmessage to move the object to a second UE, wherein the request messageincludes information on the object to be moved; transmitting, by theserver and to the first UE, a response message including addressinformation; connecting, by the server, a browsing session with thefirst UE such that the object is selected to be moved; and transmitting,by the server, the object to the second UE.
 8. The method of claim 7,further comprising: moving, by the server, the selected object to asecond UE.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the address information isincluded in a Post Response (PR)-URL parameter, and the addressinformation is a parameter in which the first UE indicates an address ofa server performing the browsing session.
 10. A user equipment which isable to consume a content, the user equipment comprising: a transceiverconfigured to receive at least one object from a server, wherein theobject is owned by the first UE after the object is issued by theserver; and a controller configured to control the transceiver totransmit to the same server a request message to move the object to thesecond UE if the object is to be moved to a second UE via the server,the request message including information on the object to be moved,wherein the controller is further configured to control the transceiverto connect to a server based on the address information thereby toperform a browsing session enabling to select or deselect the object tobe moved, and wherein the controller is further configured to delete theobject.
 11. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the address information isincluded in a Post Response (PR)-URL parameter, and the addressinformation is a parameter indicating an address of a server performingthe browsing session.
 12. The terminal of claim 10, wherein thecontroller is further configured to check whether or not the addressinformation is included in the response message.
 13. A server for movingan object between user equipments (UEs), the server comprising: atransmitter for transmitting, to a first user equipment (UE) which isable to consume a content, at least one object, wherein the object isowned by the first UE after the object is issued by a server; and areceiver for receiving, from the first UE, a request message to move theobject to a second UE, wherein the request message includes informationon the object to be moved, wherein the transceiver is further configuredto transmit, to the first UE, a response message including addressinformation, wherein the server connects a browsing session with thefirst UE such that the object is selected to be moved, and wherein thetransceiver is further configured to transmit the object to the secondUE after the object is selected via the browsing session.
 14. The serverof claim 13, wherein the transceiver is further configured to move thechanged object to a second UE.